research-article

Player motivations: A psychological perspective

Author:

Barbaros BostanAuthors Info & Claims

Computers in Entertainment (CIE), Volume 7, Issue 2

Article No.: 22, Pages 1 - 26

https://doi.org/10.1145/1541895.1541902

Published: 24 June 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Although player motivation is one of the main concerns of computer gaming, research so far has been able to identify only a limited set of motives, which are not founded on formal theories of human motivation. Assuming that goal-directed behavior is triggered by the interaction between personal and environmental factors, this article aims to analyze a broader range of gaming motivations derived from basic human needs. The psychological needs investigated in this study are based on the psychogenic needs divided into six categories: materialism, power, affiliation, achievement, information, and sensual needs, defined by Murray [1938] in his extensive research. Since the present work defines motivation as a product of continuous interactions between players and the virtual world, each individual psychological need is briefly described in terms of the actions it provokes. In this context, this article is not concerned with why people play computer games but how they are motivated in the game.

Detailed analysis of the conceptual components of player motivation focuses on matching each psychological need to common gaming situations in computer role-playing games (RPGs). Since this game genre provides interactive virtual environments capable of offering experiences analogous to real life, it is highly relevant to motivational studies. The relationship between motivational factors and gaming situations is discussed with examples from a recently released RPG, which takes place in a fantasy world full of social issues and conflicts, where players usually find themselves in situations that require a choice between the lesser of two evils. It is expected that the variables defined in this study should facilitate the design of computer games that satisfy a broader range of player motivations by providing ways to investigate the relationship between psychological needs and the gaming environment, while bearing in mind the basic components of goal-directed behavior.

References

[1]

Allen, B. P. 1994. Personality Theories. Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA.

[2]

Anderson, C. A. 2004. An update on the effects of violent video games. J. Adolescence 27, 133--122.

[3]

Anderson, C. A. and Bushman, B. J. 2001. Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal and prosocial behavior: Ameta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science 12, 353--359.

[4]

Anderson, C. and Berdahl, J. L. 2002. The experience of power: Examining the effects of power on approach and inhibition tendencies. J. Personality Social Psychology 83, 1362--1367.

[5]

Anderson, C. A. and Ford, C. M. 1986. Affect of the game player: Short term effects of highly and mildly aggressive video games. Personality and Social Psychology Bull.12, 390--402.

[6]

Andrade, G., Ramalho, G., Santana, H., and Corruble, V. 2005. Extending reinforcement learning to provide dynamic game balancing. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Reasoning, Representation, and Learning in Computer Games, 19th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), 7--12.

[7]

Atkinson, J. W. 1957. Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. Psychological Rev. 64, 359--372.

[8]

Bandura, A. and Cervone, D. 1983. Self-evaluative and self-efficacy mechanisms governing the motivational effects of goal systems. J. Personality Social Psychology 45, 1017--1028.

[9]

Bartle, R. A. 2004. Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders Publishing.

Digital Library

[10]

Bervoets, S. 2007. Freedom of choice in a social context: comparing game forms. Social Choice and Welfare 29, 2, 295--315.

[11]

Bolles, R. C. 1975. Theory of Motivation. Harper&Row, New York.

[12]

Cacioppo, J. T. and Petty, R. E. 1982. The need for cognition. J. Personality Social Psychology 42, 1, 116--131.

[13]

Carver, C. S. and Scheier, M. F. 2000. Perspectives on Personality (4th ed.), Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA.

[14]

Castranova, E. 2005. Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

Digital Library

[15]

Christian, D. B., Riedl, M. O., and Young, R. M. 2002. Conversation starters: Using spatial context to initiate dialogue in first person perspective games. In Proceedings of the 2002 AAAI Spring Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Entertainment.

Digital Library

[16]

Cohen, A. R., Stotland, E., and Wolfe, D. M. 1955. An experimental investigation of need for cognition. J. Abnormal Social Psychology 51, 291--294.

[17]

Cooper, J. and Mackie, D. 1986. Video games and aggression in children. J. Applied Social Psychology 16, 8, 726--744.

[18]

Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1990. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Harper Perennial.

[19]

Cutumisu, M., Szafron, D., Schaeffer, J., McNaughton, M., Roy, T., Onuczko, C., and Carbonaro, M. 2006. Generating ambient behaviors in computer role-playing games. IEEE Intelligent Systems 21, 5, 19--27.

Digital Library

[20]

Fishman, D. B. 1966. Need and expectancy as determinants of affiliative behavior in small groups. J. Personality Social Psychology 4, 155--164.

[21]

Furby, L. 1978. Possession in humans: An exploratory study of its meaning and motivation. Social Behavior and Personality 6, 49--65.

[22]

Gee, J. P. 2003. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Palgrave/Macmillan, New York.

Digital Library

[23]

Gee, J. P. 2005. Why Video Games Are Good For Your Soul: Pleasure And Learning. Common Ground, Melbourne.

[24]

Gentile, D. A., Lynch, P. J., Linder, J. R., and Walsh, D. A. 2004. The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent aggressive attitudes and behaviors. J. Adolescence 27, 5--22.

[25]

Heckhausen, H. 1974. Leistung and Chancengleichheit. Hogrefe, Göttingen, Germany.

[26]

Heckhausen, J. and Heckhausen, H. 2005. Motivation and Action. Cambridge University Press.

[27]

Hunicke, R. and Chapman, V. 2004. AI for dynamic difficulty adjustment in games. In Proceedings of the Challenges in Game AI Workshop, 19th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI'04), 91--96.

[28]

Jackson, D. N. 1974. Personality Research Form Manual. Research Psychologists Press.

[29]

James, W. 1890. Principles of Psychology. Macmillan, New York.

[30]

Kellar, M., Watters, C., and Duffy, J. 2005. Motivational factors in game play in two user groups. In Proceedings of the DiGRA 2005 Conference.

[31]

Kipnis, D. 1976. The Powerholders. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

[32]

Klein, H. J. 1989. An integrated control theory model of work motivation. Management Review 14, 150--172.

[33]

Kline, C. and Blumberg, B. 1999. The art and science of synthetic character design. In Proceedings of the Symposium on AI and Creativity in Entertainment and Visual Art (AISB).

[34]

Lewin, K. 1936. Principles of Topological Psychology. McGraw-Hill, New York, F. Heider and G. Heider, Translators.

[35]

Livingstone, D. 2006. Turing's test and believable AI in games. ACM Computers in Entertainment 4, 1, 6--18.

Digital Library

[36]

Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P. 1990. A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

[37]

Loftus, G. R. and Loftus, E. F. 1983. Mind at Play. The Psychology of Video Games. Basic Books, New York.

Digital Library

[38]

Logan, F. A. and Wagner, A. R. 1965. Reward and Punishment. Allyn and Bacon, Bosston, MA.

[39]

Logan, F. A. 1960. Incentive. Yale University Press.

[40]

Malone, T. W. and Lepper, M. R. 1987. Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. In Aptitude, Learning, and instruction: Conative and Affective Process Analyses, R.E. Snow and M.J. Farr (eds.), Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.

[41]

Maslow, A. H. 1968. Towards a Psychology of Being. Van Nostrand, New York.

[42]

Mayer, J. D. 2007. Personality: A System's Approach. Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA.

[43]

McDougall, W. 1908. An Introduction to Social Psychology. Methuen, London.

[44]

Mehrabian, A. 1969. Measures of achievement tendency. Educational and Psychological Measurement 29, 445--451.

[45]

Mehrabian, A. 1970. The development and validation of measures of affiliative tendency and sensitivity to rejection. Educational and Psychological Measurement 30, 417--428.

[46]

Murray, H. A. 1938. Explorations in Personality. Oxford University Press.

[47]

Murray, H. A. 1981. Proposals for a theory of personality. In Endeavors in Psychology: Selections from the Personology of Henry A. Murray, E.S. Shneidman (ed.), Harper and Row, New York, 125--203.

[48]

Pine, B. J. and Gilmore, J. H. 1999. The Experience Economy, Work is Theatre and Every Business a Stage. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.

[49]

Prensky, M. 2001. Digital Game-Based Learning. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Digital Library

[50]

Prensky, M. 2002. The motivation of gameplay: The real twenty-first century learning revolution. On the Horizon 10, 1, 5--11.

[51]

Provenzo, E. F. 1991. Video Kids: Making Sense of Nintendo. Harvard, Cambridge, MA.

Digital Library

[52]

Rollings, A. and Adams, E. 2003. Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design. New Riders, London,

Digital Library

[53]

Romano, D. M. and Wong, A. K. L. 2004. Personality model of a social character. In 18th British HCI Group Annual Conference.

[54]

Ryan, R. M., Rigby, C. S., and Przybylski, A. 2006. The motivational pull of video games: A self-determination theory approach. Motivation and Emotion 30, 4, 347--364.

[55]

Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E. 2004. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Digital Library

[56]

Sherry, J. L. 2001. The effects of violent video games on aggression: A meta-analysis. Human Communication Research 27, 409--431.

[57]

Singer, J. A. 1990. Affective responses to autobiographical memories and their relationship to long-term goals. J. Personality 58, 535--563.

[58]

Skinner, B. F. 1938. The Behavior of Organisms. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York.

[59]

Skinner, B. F. 1953. Science and Human Behavior. Macmillan, New York.

[60]

Spronck, P., Sprinkhuizen-Kuyper, I., and Postma, E. 2004. Difficulty scaling of game AI. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Intelligent Games and Simulation (GAME-ON), 33--37.

[61]

Staddon, J. E. R. and Simmelhag, V. L. 1971. The “superstition” experiment: A reexamination of its implications for the principles of adaptive behavior. Psychological Review 78, 3--43.

[62]

Stewart, K. M. 1997. Beyond entertainment: Using interactive games in web-based instruction. J. Instruction Delivery Systems 11, 2, 18--20.

[63]

Sutton-Smith, B. 1997. The Ambiguity of Play. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

[64]

Sweetser, P. and Wyeth, P. 2005. GameFlow: A model for evaluating player enjoyment in games. ACM Computers in Entertainment 3, 3, 1--24.

Digital Library

[65]

Thue, D. and Bulitko, V. 2006. Modelling goal-directed players in digital games. In Proceedings of the Artificial intelligence and interactive Digital Entertainment Conference, 86--91.

[66]

Turkle, S. 1984. The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. Simon&Schuster, New York.

Digital Library

[67]

Vorderer, P., Klimmt, C., and Ritterfeld, U. 2004. Enjoyment: At the heart of media entertainment. Communication Theory 14, 4, 388--408.

[68]

Winter, D. G. 1988. The power motive in women -- and men. J. Personality Social Psychology 54, 510--519.

[69]

Winter, D. G. 1992. Power motivation revisited. In Motivation and Personality: Handbook of Thematic Content Analysis, C.P. Smith (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 301--310.

[70]

Yee, N. 2006. Motivations of play in online games. CyberPsychology&Behavior 9, 6, 772--775.

[71]

Young, K. S. 1997. What makes the Internet addictive: Potential explanations for pathological Internet use. Paper presented at the 105th American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL.

[72]

Young, K. S. 2001. Tangled in the Web: Understanding Cybersex from Fantasy to Addiction. First Books.

[73]

Zillmann, D. 1988a. Mood management through communication choices. American Behavioral Scientist 31, 327--340.

[74]

Zillmann, D. 1988b. Mood management: Using entertainment to full advantage. In Communication, Social Cognition, and Affect. L. Donohew et al. (eds.), Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 147--171.

[75]

Zillmann, D. 1994. Mechanism of emotional involvement with drama. Poetics 23, 33--51.

[76]

Zillmann, D. 1996. The psychology of suspense in dramatic expositions. In Suspense: Conceptualizations, Theoretical Analyses, and Empirical Explorations, P. Vorderer et al. (eds.), Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, 199--231.

[77]

Zuckerman, M. 1994. Behavioral Expressions and Biosocial Bases of Sensation Seeking. Cambridge University Press.

Cited By

Liang ZMelcer EKhotchasing KChen SHwang DHoang N(2024)Game On for Zzz’s: The Role of Relevance in Shaping Perceptions of Sleep Hygiene Games Among University Students (Preprint)JMIR Serious Games10.2196/64063Online publication date: 11-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/64063
Bedard ABedard KZhang Q(2024)Games that Move You: A Cinematic User Experience Evaluation of VR GamesVirtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality10.1007/978-3-031-61041-7_11(166-181)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-61041-7_11
Vahlo JKoponen A(2024)Player Personas and Game ChoiceEncyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_149(1409-1414)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_149
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Player motivations: A psychological perspective

Recommendations

Online gaming motivations scale: development and validation
CHI '12: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Understanding gaming motivations is important given the growing trend of incorporating game-based mechanisms in non-gaming applications. In this paper, we describe the development and validation of an online gaming motivations scale based on a 3-factor ...
Understanding online collectible card game players' motivations: a survey study with two games
OzCHI '18: Proceedings of the 30th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction

Online collectible card games (OCCGs) are digital, networked contemporaries of collectible card games (CCGs) which combine the collection of trading cards with strategic deck building and competitive gameplay. Despite their popularity and unique ...
An investigation of player motivations in Eyewire, a gamified citizen science project

Sustained engagement of participants is essential for the success of a citizen science project. However, the motivations of why people engage with such activities can be idiosyncratic, varied, and evolving. In this article we examine player ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Computers in Entertainment

Computers in Entertainment Volume 7, Issue 2

SPECIAL ISSUE: Media Arts and Games (Part II)

June 2009

220 pages

EISSN:1544-3574

DOI:10.1145/1541895

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 24 June 2009

Accepted: 01 February 2009

Revised: 01 January 2009

Received: 01 December 2008

Published in CIE Volume 7, Issue 2

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article
Research
Refereed

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

52
Total Citations
View Citations
4,041
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)258
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)10

Reflects downloads up to 03 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Liang ZMelcer EKhotchasing KChen SHwang DHoang N(2024)Game On for Zzz’s: The Role of Relevance in Shaping Perceptions of Sleep Hygiene Games Among University Students (Preprint)JMIR Serious Games10.2196/64063Online publication date: 11-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/64063
Bedard ABedard KZhang Q(2024)Games that Move You: A Cinematic User Experience Evaluation of VR GamesVirtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality10.1007/978-3-031-61041-7_11(166-181)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-61041-7_11
Vahlo JKoponen A(2024)Player Personas and Game ChoiceEncyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_149(1409-1414)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_149
Luckykumar Dwarkadas ATalasila VChalla RK G S(2024)A review of the application of virtual and augmented reality in physical and occupational therapySoftware: Practice and Experience10.1002/spe.332354:8(1378-1407)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.3323
Yilmaz YMonteiro SChan TChandross DLal SMunford V(2023)I Would Rather Be PlayingInnovative Digital Practices and Globalization in Higher Education10.4018/978-1-6684-6339-0.ch009(137-159)Online publication date: 17-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-6339-0.ch009
Ravers DGerling KNaaris MKonings MVerslype SMonbaliu EHallez H(2023)Game-based Powered Wheelchair Skills Training: Examining Tensions Between Player Engagement and Therapeutic RequirementsProceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3597638.3614475(1-5)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3597638.3614475
Coles B(2022)Video Games: A Complementary Therapy for Veterans with Serious Mental IllnessJournal of Veterans Studies10.21061/jvs.v8i1.3018:1(83-86)Online publication date: 28-Jan-2022
https://doi.org/10.21061/jvs.v8i1.301
Liu XKasmarik KAbbass H(2022)Assessing Player Profiles of Achievement, Affiliation, and Power Motivation Using ElectroencephalographyIEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems10.1109/TSMC.2021.307321652:6(3648-3658)Online publication date: Jun-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/TSMC.2021.3073216
Sepetci T(2021)Blurred Borders Between Good and Evil in Today's “Lesser Evil World”International Perspectives on Rethinking Evil in Film and Television10.4018/978-1-7998-4778-6.ch005(59-75)Online publication date: 2021
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-4778-6.ch005
Liu MChoi SKim DWilliams D(2021)Connecting in-game performance, need satisfaction, and psychological well-being: A comparison of older and younger players in World of TanksNew Media & Society10.1177/1461444821106254526:2(692-710)Online publication date: 30-Dec-2021
https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211062545
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Article

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

HTML Format

View this article in HTML Format.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Issue’s Table of Contents